Nikon UK confirms price rises to D4 and D800, but honours pre-orders

Nikon UK has officially confirmed increases to the prices of its D800, D800E and D4 DSLRs. The move, which Nikon blames on an 'internal systems error', sees the D800's recommended retail price rise by £200 to £2599.99, while the D4's goes up by £500 to £5299.99 and the D800E's becomes £2,899.99. However the company says it will honor the prices on existing pre-orders placed before March 24th.

Nikon UK has also confirmed to us that this price rise will only affect customers in the UK and Irish markets - other regions are not affected.

Press statement:

NIKON UK Press Statement 26-March-2012

Nikon UK can confirm a correction to the originally published recommended retail prices (RRP) on the D800, D800E and D4 products.

Due to a local internal systems error, the incorrect RRPs on the D800, D800E and D4 products were communicated in the UK and Irish markets at the time of announcement. The correct RRPs for the products should have been D4: £5289.99, D800: £2,599.99 and D800E: £2,899.99. We would like to apologise sincerely to our customers for this unfortunate mistake, which has been corrected with immediate effect. We know that there has been strong consumer interest in these products and a high level of pre-orders placed with retailers; Nikon will be honouring the original prices to retailers on all customer pre-orders placed before March 24th 2012.

Comments

In the pre amble for the Nikon D800 Wikipedia quote DPREVIEW with the following "Nikon honored the original price for all pre-orders placed before March 24"Sadly that statement is not true It should read "Nikon honoured the original price for SOME pre-orders placed before March 24" so that Wikipedia have some credibility.I placed an order with Mifsuds on March 9 and gave them a £1100 deposit. Mifsuds did not honour the contract, and nor did Nikon UK when I wrote to them regarding the matter.I presented Nikon UK with all the documented evidence, dates, payments etc, but it seems that Nikon UK treat honour as a word and not an action.

To continue my rant....I would challenge Nikon to come clean and explain themselves on this site but I doubt they will rise to it. While I'm on the subject I have my suspicions that there is more to the delays in delivery than we are being told. Its clear they have lied about the pricing issue so why would one believe the supply and demand claim. If that is true then Nikon has serious management issues (Hey didn't the Japanese used to commit ritual suicide when they were embarrassed? hmmm) So will I buy a D4? yes, if the price comes down a bit and reaches the stores far enough in advance of the Black Magic which I think will actually prove to be better than a lot of people realise. For under £2200 (CVP Price) my guess is it will set a benchmark. In the mean time perhaps Nikon will suddenly realise they're in trouble and offer the market some sort of compensation i.e. a price reduction especially on the D4. My personal price point argument would be around £4300 - £4500.

A little late to the table with this but I challenged Nikon on these price increases and they simply sent me their now standard response about this issue namely that it was an error etc and existing orders would be honoured. I didn't put in an early order as I haven't yet seen enough if any real independent reviews of the D4 or D800 ( I need HD video plus occasional stills) There's a Blunty 3000 D4 test which look impressive. Philip Bloom seems to be unimpressed with the D800 in a side by side shot (v 5D III) of a house (If I mis read that I apologise) but digressing here. I do not believe what Nikon says: Coincidence v probability - that all three cameras D4, 800 & 800 E all suffered the same pricing error. That the prices now fall almost exactly the same as the canon equivalents - in the case of the D4 it is now 'coincidentally' within £10 of the canon rival. Seriously. does anyone believe its possible to just land land at that price unless there is some sort fixing going on?

5 grand for a camera!!!! come on, do these cameras really cost that much to make? I understand that the R&D for the technology is expensive, but the base camera was developed years ago, these so called "new" cameras are just upgrades with newer chip and processor technology. I'm sure they cost around a quarter of the price to manufacture, maybe less? but if they sold them at a reasonable cost, I know they would sell 1000 times as many units. Drop the D4 to £2000 and then I would snap someones hand off for one. But these big companies are greedy, yes if your a professional and making a living from these cameras, then £5000+ seems reasonable I suppose, but us "enthusiasts" would love the top quality images, built like a tank, all singing all dancing cameras, but at the over inflated prices.....Nikon, you can just forget it........

unless your a pro photographer there really is no need for a $5,000 camera , there are alot of great point and shot cameras out there that can do the job , and $5,000 is cheap for what it can do , yeah your right they could sell alot more at a better price , but then why would we have pro photography , everyone could take the same shot , i have seen cameras as high as $45,000 and im sure they make even more expensive cameras out , the camera is cheap enough , they have taken about 50 % of my customers away due to the cheaper line of camerasanyway i would never buy a Nikon , Canon is the camera for me

Here in UK everyone rip us off. Even the local energy supplier nPower is raising electricity prices by 49% and gas by 25%, where the US gas prices at a 10 year low. We brits should boycott these companies.

"10 year low" are you kidding? You should check your facts before posting statements. Yeah it's way less expensive than the UK but that has nothing to do with the companies, that's the wonderful government taxes! About 80% of UK gas prices are tax. Feel free to boycott the companies, I'm sure they will notice.

What's everyones deal on here?? These are cameras aimed at pro's, of course they're expensive. If you are happy with a D90 then you are not the market Nikon is aiming for. And I laugh at anyone who says greed is the reason for the prices. Clearly none of you have any clue how difficult microchip/sensor/lens design is.

Nikon's price policy on pro-sumer and pro material is a syatem error since a few years, one of the reasons why I left Nikon. Then, who needs 36 mpix. Also here the throw away and buy new policiy is applied. D700 units are now sold online and on E-bay starting at 500$. Buying new gear at every issue of new material or new mpix count is waisting time and money. I was awaiting from Nikon a camera body in the price-range of the D2oo with the 24 mpix chip, thus the D300 resolution. That had been a step forward in some way. The price of the D3X was an insult and the beginning of Nikon's internal system error in pricing.

Do you really need to spend this amount of money to take better photos?? I'd rather spend £3000 on a couple of wildlife trips to Africa or the Arctic and take some great shots with my trusty Pentax K5 and DA* 300mm :-) A higher megapixel sensor does not make you a great photographer - period.

A higher megapixel sensor does not make you a great photographer, but better LENS take better photos. And if you have good lenses, then you can have also a good Nikon 36.3 MP sensor.Because, of course, if you have a sensor like that, you must have excellent lenses. The price of this camera is the standard for cameras of this category. Perhaps the euro will collapse, then the Japanese also will have to deal with the occident crisis.But remember that, more than the price of Cameras, the problem in Europe is that the Cameras are not duty-free.

Internal system error, inner greed, reverse rebate... its all the same. It sucks but at the same time, the additional cost is negligible in the long run. Add a couple fast zooms (24-70/2.8, 70-200/2.8), primes (35/1.4, 85/1.4) and flash guns to the D800 and the kit will be $10,000+ anyway.

He-he-he-he. I love how the Canikoners continue arguing which of them -- the Canoners or the Nikoners -- get to be ripped-off more. When they both get ripped-off in just about equal measure, ha-ha-ha-ha!!!200/500 British Pound Sterling MORE (!!!!!) for those Video Moire Godzillas?He-he-he-he.... No wonder the the era of these bungling, huge, heavy, bulky, flapping mirror DSLRs is precipitously drawing to a permanent closure. Thanks for speeding up that process, Mr. Nikon Son.

if everyone here had a look only at the characteristics of the sensors of these cameras, he/she would find out soon that there is no other option as of today. (sony is not konica-minolta btw, they just bought some parts, not the actual imaging tech.)

State of the art impressive, but that I will never buy. Too heavy, as well. If you keep all the new goodness, at these prices, and do less than your best production combos, without realistically affordable model sets, then you can go to heel. I don't just need it. ...and trust me, I can "afford" it, it's just, I'm not post dumb stupid. Where would I carry such a thing? Really?

Neo...it's not that big...if you want small buy a Fuji X10. Really, I can see complaining about the size of a 1DS3, or a D4.....but for what this camera does it's quite small. It's all about compromise...if you don't care about the bells and whistles than buy a Leica M9, but to complain about the size of a D800 is silly....it's built for a certain function....and it looks like it will do very well.

You're part right Clint. The size may be fine for some, even preferable, for what it does. it is just not a weight I'd want, dragging me down, for very long. Isn't that a problem we can solve?

However, it's not even the weight, as much as it is price; that keeps me away. I will not likely be buying a $500 hamburger, either. No matter how good it is, or who makes it. After all, I could drop that too. My point is, the price of quality cameras, is way past ludicrous. Higher, is fine sometimes, but come on. It's a camera.

Raising £20 I can accept, but raising £200 is like robbery and raising £500 is like whipping a dead body. Disgusting. To be honest, I decided to choose between D800 and D4, but now, I stay put using what I have.

Order cancelled. Ridiculous price to pay for a camera, however revolutionary. I'm a keen photographer, with a Canon 5DII, Panasonic GH1, Canon S95, Nikon F100 and Mamiya 645 AFDII. Seriously, how many cameras do I need?! I need to sell some, not buy another! I was initially taken in by all the hype, but now realise my current crop of cameras take perfectly good photographs and a D800/E won't make my photographs any better, only much bigger. Professionals need to buy these cameras for their business, but I, and I'm guessing many of the amateurs here, don't need that many megapixels. And as for the 5DIII, that's an even bigger rip off. Buy that new lens that you've always dreamed about instead.

Let's see - 250 comments about a price increase? Too many people have too much time on their hands. And why can't software folks running blogs create a digital HTML 'whining filter'?? It really doesn't make sense to me - you are talking about a few hundred dollars matched against at least $8,000-10,000 for camera body and lenses? Come on guys. Whine about something more important . . .

What is the problem?Not the selling party, but the buyer decides what he or she want to pay.The market decides what the price will be. As soon as a seller does not sell his stock, he will lower the price. If his margin is to small he stops selling the article. The same will happen with Nikon. When in the coming weeks the selling from this cameras drop dramatically they will lower the price. The professionals don't care what they pay, because they just add something on the price they are selling.

I pity anyone who has ordered one. If Nikon can make such a fundamental "system error" then how long before errors start cropping up in firmware? I have been a loyal Nikon user since the F301 but that loyalty is now seriously strained. The trust has gone. A multi-national company should not be making such mistakes. Even more of a bombshell to see it on Amazon US at £700 cheaper at current exchange rates. Surely the mistake was that UK was too high, NOT too low!!!!! Its so sad.

Why are people so upset with Canon/Nikon pricing? If they can sell each and every camera at the price tags they are asking for, I don't get the problem? Of course I would love to buy a Ferrari for 50k too but unfortunately they ask more money for it. There is a market for certain high priced goods and as long as people are willing to pay...

Relax, guys. You can't afford the D4 or D800? Take it down a notch and buy something less expensive. I just don't get the whining.

am i the only person who believes that nikon and canon releasing two top models each at the same time, both insanely priced are just preparing for a global financial collapse? i might be wrong , just curious

Jean Baptiste...this D800 looks to be twice the camera the Canon 1Ds3 was that people paid $8000 for....so what's the problem? Maybe it's only insanely priced for you...

If you think this is expensive go over to the Leica camp where people shell out $7000 for an M9 with a 3 yr old sensor design, no AF, no live view, no features period. Different strokes for different folks.

if you are greedy, satisfaction price shall be minimum of your competitor.if you are big, you put your own prices, you rule the market.by coincidence, for greedy ones ,system errors are there to save the day.for big ones, there is no system error, if needed there is just price increase... honest and clear.Nikon shall be shame themselves to follow up Canon.This means Canon rules the market prices...

Let's face it. There will always be people who feel someone else got, or is getting a better deal. The whole scenario is based on foreign exchange rates and timing. In the US, we recently saw the D700 drop $500 -- no refunds to those who paid $2700 for one a month ago. Switch to Canon if you must. Their top end models are more expensive. The thing you are cutting off to spite your face is your nose.

Not really Alan...The one thing Canon DSLR's will always have over Nikon DSLR's is the EF mount, and the huge choice of lens options it brings...Nikon users on the other hand have even less choice of lenses than Sigma users!For this reason alone, Nikon DSLR's should always be cheaper than Canon DSLR's or they simply wont sell in the huge numbers that Canon DSLR's do. By raising the price of the D800 and reducing the difference in price between it and the 5D MkIII, Nikon are actually going to help Canon sell more cameras!

Maybe you are right but however there is something we don't realise that Nikon did file insurance (Thailand and Japan) to claims for the compensation.

Obviously it is not fair that UK have to pay for this compensation - if i was the manager of the company - i would think all the factors such as clients, company, present situation and long terms... i would force and rise the price for the international market by £80.00/$130.00 for both Nikon D800 and D4..

i think it is reasonable amount that we all share as equal opportunity, but £200.00 or £500.00 that is bit extreme isnt..

Debankur, if that is true, then why are they only grabbing the extra money from UK customers? An increase in the US price of the D800 by say $200 would net them exponentially more money so I really dont see it.

UK We gave you the world and now everyone just craps on us. Even the pigeons in Traflagar Square. There is no way that Nikon would have pulled a stunt like this in France. Seriously how can you have an internal pricing error just for the UK? It's not rocket science is it setting a price for each country.

If the "internal systems error" was there for long time - does that means we all bought at the wrong pricing for Nikon D700, D3 or D3s? Basically you don't have any real explanation why increase the price by £200.00 and £500.00 but just blame on the systems error - hey computer don't make any mistake!!!

You expected people are damn fool, it's only £200.00 or £500.00 no big deal....now lets talk about figure how much you gonna make out of all of us...

not only that figure but also add top of their profit margin as well - im sure it will be 3 or 4 time higher then above figure...Sure that's hell lots of money, what you gonna do with that much extra money for?

A professional photographer friend of mine over here in England tells me that recently his faulty Nikon D1X was returned via Calumet from Nikon unrepaired, with a letter stating that as the camera was discontinued, no servicing was no longer available. The D1X was first launched in 2001.On contacting Nikon about servicing his D3, (launched in 2007) he was told that Nikon will stop servicing this camera in 2016.So it seems that Nikon have firmly embraced the 'throw away society' maxim to their (professional) products, and the philosophy is there for everybody to see : if your camera breaks down, buy another one - you know it makes sense.Corporate greed personified.

You can buy a used D1x for less than $200 US. I would use it as an excuse to upgrade. How is it that your friend hasn't been bitten by the upgrade bug, and what kind of professional photographer is he? I used to have a D1x. Blazing fast AF. Tone curve a little too dark. No iTTL.

Well I find it quite shocking Nikon cancels service support for its professional line of cameras so quickly. Did they used to do this back in the days of the Nikon F1 film cameras?

I thought the whole point of pro-grade cameras was not so much better image quality but how robust they were AND that you were buying into professional levels of support.

I do not consider the 9 year service life of a D3 a professional level of support. And it is only 9 years if you bought one on the day they were launched. If you were not an early adopter is much less.

I do not expect them to service Coolpix models forever but at the professional end of the scale I would expect decades of service to be available.

My point exactly Dave Oddie, but that is what Nikon UK have told my photographer friend. So if the battery door on your D3 breaks after 2016 not only will there be no independents with any spare parts to fit a new one, Nikon will not help with repairs either.Not sure about Canon DaSigmaGuy - though if they follow suit I think there should be howls of protest across the world at their crass stupidity & greed.

Reduction in "warranty-years" from 10-11 (depending on how recent this was) for the 1DX compared to 9 years for the D3 isn't a huge jump, but I see what you're sayin'. I would say it has more to do with Moore's Law and demand-side trends than corporate greed. This price increase, however, is all supply-driven (possibly under the guise of a really big corporate finance muss-up).

@Martin/Dave - Seriously guys...how can you talk about 'professional' support for a 10 year old camera??? Any working 'professional' would burn a camera out in 5 years anyway. Like others pointed out you could buy a replacement D1X on the used market for less than it would cost to repair it...which is why Nikon no longer offers the service.

Clint. In the days of film when cameras were mechanical for the most part pro's just got their cameras fixed by Canon or Nikon. Pro's preferred both the Nikon F1 (and F2, F2AS) and Canon F1 over more electronic cameras for a long time despite more electronic cameras coming out. I can remember when the Nikon F3 came and it went down a bit like a lead balloon because if the battery went it stopped working due to the electronic shutter.

But that is a bit beside the point. I think the point is Nikon (and Canon) need to keep the service support up for older cameras to keep their reputation as having a good service system in place. If pro cameras are just commodities like lesser models then why stick to Canon or Nikon?

When your classic car breaks down, what do you do? You go to the junkyard to find parts. You can do the same thing by searching eBay. I'm sure there are plenty of shops that can perform the repairs your friend's camera requires, but there comes a point where the repair isn't worth it, and for an old digital camera, that point isn't that far away. But I understand where you're coming from. It would be nice if Nikon would treat those rare customers better. I was looking for a part (metal battery tray) for a 27 year old Chevy automobile, and I could still buy it from the dealer! Now that is great service! It wasn't some generic part either.

Nikon shoot them selfs in the margin sales :))). Canon was smarter. The price is big, also the discounts in near future, not to mention accesories which can be shiped with. In the long term, prices will be almost the same, but the cream will on the Canon cake.

I think not...The 5D MkIII has attracted much scorn for being too little, too late and for too much money...Lets face it, for those who already have 5D MkII's, there is very little to make upgrading to the MkIII a worthwhile option.You could say that Nikon got the price of D800 about right but Canon got the price of the 5D MkIII dead wrong!Now, its obvious that someone high up at Nikon UK stupidly thought that they are losing out financially because the Canon is (or should I say, was) £600 more expensive...But they obviously could'nt see that the D800's lower price was actually its saving grace! They must have been too stupid to see that by raising the price of the D800 and therefore greatly reducing the price difference between the two, Nikon are actually helping Canon to shift more 5D MkIII's!Talk about shoot yourself in the foot!

you are wrong. Canon will drop the price, but will be on par with Nikon. you thing that people who own Canon glass will swich for 200-200$ or Euro? at this time nobody has an idea how those camera works in real life. the hit or the fail will be in the 30 days after first sales. why? becouse you have return policy on your side and if you don't like the camera you can send it back.just wait and see.

Actually, before Nikon UK conveniently decided a pricing error had taken place and raised the price, the D800 was over 700 Euros (over $950) cheaper than the 5D MkIII! That sort of difference is hardly small change when you consider you can buy a brand new Canon 60D for just over £600 in the UK!Then you have to factor in what you actually get for your money if you buy the D800 vs the more expensive 5D MkIII...36mp vs 22mp, better high ISO performance, better DR, uncrompressed video output etc, etc...Apart from the Nikon mount, Nikon had a real winner!They got greedy though, and thought they could fleece UK customers for more dosh (because anyone living in the UK today knows we live in "rip-off Britain" right), and then to blame it on some ficticious computer error...Its scandelous, and there is no dought it is a decision that will come back to bite them!

I have to say I find it completely hilarious that so many people are complaining that a camera which costs ~$4150 with a $600 battery grip that needs lenses in the neighborhood of $1000 dollars to take full advantage of the sensor is now going to be about $300 more.

You're the same people who are on here bitching every day that nobody should need files that big because your 10 year old computer won't even process 10MP raws quickly, and about how the new Canon doesn't have enough megapixels, and how the NEX7 has too many megapixels, and about everything else that comes along, ad infinitum.

exactly you brain bugbecause of all that Nikon should make a good price and stay with it.we will need to spend so much extra money anyway - in the meanwhile Nikon should keep there longtime customers happy (waiting so patient for the new stuff to come out)awful - this people who think they see the whole picture.

Apart from not wishing the self induced premature demise upon anyone I have to concur. What it does is set it well above what all but the most wealthy of amateurs would aspire to, as it creeps toward £3000, I am sure that the D700 has been available mostly for about half that price, that is a few years ago £3000 quid would get you into the FX club and some decent glass to boot. Now it really is a pro only camera the extra 200 quid won't make that much deference apart from profoundly irritating people for a bit.

For the "systems error" ill bet that's an individual that screened up put the wrong codes is in SAP, easily done and not spotted.

That's what I was thinking. It's good enough for me for the forseeable future. Then I read that Nikon will stop supporting the D3 in 2016. And of course they're preventing 3rd parties from obtaining spares. Of course by 2016 these dinosaur DSLRs will look pretty sick - probably even against consumer grade cameras. At this stage of capitalism throw-away products are a given, as is the need for ever-increasing new markets - and consequently population growth. The good news is that at some point there will be an enormous catastrophe which will lodge itself in the collective memory with such force that human society might regenerate in some more sustainable form - assuming that there's enough of it left. The burning question is what sort of cameras this culture might produce...

I suspect Canon is the culprit, here. You can believe "systems error" if you like. How about this...somebody in the UK thought the introductory price was on the low side for a 36mp camera and when the Canon came out, they were vindicated. Imagine going to a meeting with a 6-month stack of backorders and asking why the Canon is priced higher. Of course, if people in the UK/Ireland will pay more.....

Hello, fellow Americans. Aren't you all looking forward to the VAT coming our way, as suggested by the current admin and endorsed by the opposition?

No relief in site for the shriveling dollar.

As for Nikon and the internal systems error, that is one big corporate blunder. I'm sure internal committees are chuckling though, knowing that people forget very quickly, and this little insult will have practically zero long-term effect on sales. When Nikon now and then lower the price a little or offer rebates, the fish will be lunging faster than they can be reeled in the boat.

This smacks of Nikon thinking they can get away with raising the price of the D800 just because the 5D MkIII is £600 more expensive! Its blatent greed and opportunism and Nikon should be ashamed of themselves!

In Hong Kong, everyone was happy because normally the prices orientate on the us market (as the HKD is fixed to the USD).But now the price now been fixed even higher then Europe. many upset people think again now : (

Er....Brits not shopping abroad? Have you ever heard of "Booze Cruises"? We invented the cross channel shopping trip, hence the huge shopping centres that sprung up in the Calais region of France so many years ago......try watching some TV or reading media that is not state run for a while!

Actually Maico, UK online business contribution to GDP is now officially highest of any country full stop. Growth in this area eclipses, e.g. the USA.

Every country feels they get a raw deal. I'm sure our US friends enduring a recession worse than ours would also feel the prices there are expensive too.

In Britains case, it can be true. But living in Germany, there is plenty that is cheaper in the UK. The problem is we do not protest like the French, Greeks or Germans. TBH we are a bit of a soft touch, "mustn't grumble" is part of the Brit psyche. Companies take advantage - its sound business whether we like it or not.

I run a small business, and charge poorer clients less (student discount), and the types of services big companies are likely to need the most. My costs are the same for both, and I make a profit for both. The weakest at the negotiating stage end up paying more. Simply put, it's business.